Evidence of Pain and Suffering for Your Settlement

Significant injuries sustained on the job can cause many problems, particularly if you will not be able to work at any other job again. Such injuries could include the loss of a leg, feet, hands, or severe head injuries that lead to larger brain disturbances.

The unseen injuries here can be depression, memory loss, and mental confusion, insomnia, anxiety, quick-to-anger issues, bitterness, and more. This can be worsened further if another worker’s carelessness caused the accident. The victim, in this case, has had his/her life changed forever by someone else’s doing, and bitterness and anger may be foremost in the person’s attitude.

When you have a serious on-the-job accident, it is important to begin keeping a journal, first about the circumstances of the accident, the injuries caused, any other details, and then include the emotional pain and suffering that you are going through because of it.

Getting the Evidence to Support Your Claims

Make sure that when you log all the circumstances of an accident, you include who caused the accident (you or another person), when it occurred, and who saw it. Next, include whether there were CCTV cameras found in the area that would have recorded the event. Now for the difficult part for which you must have evidence of your own.

• The emotional distress

Keep a section in the journal about the emotional traumas that you go through, such as what you felt when told that you would likely never work again, at least in that field of work. If you are having trouble sleeping and you are having nightmares about the event (or other things), keep a dream journal as well. State each time you cannot sleep, and each time you have nightmares.

Your personal doctor can recommend a licensed counselor to visit, or another professional doctor to help you work through your traumas. Written statements from your friends and family members who know you best, can document any changes they are seeing in your behavior, which would be important for your claim to a settlement.

• Documentation of prescriptions for mental issues

You may be put on specific SSRI medicationfor depression and anxiety, such as Prozac (Fluoxetine), Zoloft (Sertraline), Lexapro (Escitalopram), or others. You may react better under one prescription than another, so it may take a little time to test the prescriptions.

Always tell your doctor what other prescriptions you are taking at the same time, including vitamin and herbal supplements. There are some supplements you cannot take at the same time as your SSRI prescription.

Calculating the Pain and Suffering

When you are calculating the pain and suffering caused by a severe injury, you should consult with a workers’ compensation attorney, as he or she knows how to fight for the largest amount that could be available for you.

At this point, you are working towards a settlement (not a claim) as the outcome of all that you have been through. The range of calculation can be 1 to 5 times of the number of medical bills or larger, when using another element of the situation, so do not try to do this alone.

Call us at once if you need help with your worker’s compensation claim. 602-346-9195